Markus Goldstein, World Bank senior economist for the Africa Region, discusses the importance of a new initiative designed to effectively address the underlying causes of gender inequality in Africa.Read More »

NEW YORK—Imagine the world as you’d like to
see it in 2030. What does it look like? My fellow panelists
and I were asked this question as part of a discussion of
ac... Show More +cess to energy as a driver of gender equality during UN
Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) consultations last
week.CSW, now in its 59th year, opens annually on
International Women’s Day, March 8, and this year drew a
record crowd—with some 4,400 NGO participants from 640
organizations, up from the previous record of 3,443
representatives from 464 organizations in 2010. An
additional 25,000 passes were printed for UN delegates,
media, and others. 2015, after all, marks the 20th
anniversary of the landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform
for Action on gender equality and the launch of new
sustainable development goals, which will include ambitious
new targets aimed at empowering women and girls.And what
does my perfect future world—my “dream snapshot”—look like?
I have in fact written three vision statements over the
years. The first appeared in the book, Development, Crises,
and Alternative Visions: Third World Women’s Perspectives in
1985; the second in the Millennium Project book, Taking
Action, in 2005; and the third in the USAID Gender Equality
Strategy. In Taking Action, I projected a world in
which “women and men share equally in the enjoyment of basic
capabilities, economic assets, voice, and freedom from fear
and violence. They share the care of children, the elderly,
and the sick; the responsibility for paid employment; and
the joys of leisure. In this world the resources
now used for war and destruction are invested in human
development and well-being, institutions, and
decision-making processes are open and democratic, and all
human beings treat each other with respect and dignity.”It’s
a world in which the World Bank Group has achieved its
over-arching goals of eliminating extreme poverty and
boosting shared prosperity.Concrete ProgressDuring that
frenetic week at CSW discussions and panels in New York, I
saw ample evidence of concrete strides in the right
direction.Let’s go back to energy. Clean cooking and solar
power were on the agenda 25 years ago but acquired little
traction for a variety of reasons, notably those related to
undeveloped technology, cost, and products unsuited to
women’s needs—so even when they were available freely, women
didn’t use them. That has all changed.The technology has
improved, we have financing models, we have engaged women in
the development and marketing of various products, and
demand is growing in light of environmental, health and
other issues. Multiple actors across sectors are
collaborating to make it happen, to take innovations to
scale.The commitment on gender equality and energy issues
around the room at the access to energy panel was
impressive. A clean cookstoves display stood in back,
showing how entrepreneurs are committed to improving the
lives of women, who do the lion’s share of cooking.We heard
about the Sustainable Energy for All initiative and its
commitment to gender equality and health. As the Bank goes
forward mobilizing US $60 million for the Efficient Clean
Cooking and Heating Partnership with the Global Alliance for
Clean Cookstoves, we know we cannot do this alone. We need
to learn from and work with others.The moderator asked how
we get buy-in from colleagues to incorporate gender equality
in their energy work.On the Bank side, it’s clear: We need
data and evidence showing why this is a smart investment.
And the data are clear. We cannot address climate change,
end poverty, or boost inclusive growth unless we close key
gaps between women and men broadly, including in access to
energy.This might translate in various ways. It
might mean ensuring all households—including those that are
poor—are affordably connected to the grid, employing women
in the energy sector, or incorporating women’s concerns when
designing and building energy infrastructure. It
could mean supporting female entrepreneurs so they can
compete on an equal footing. It could mean anticipating and
proactively addressing a possible spike in gender-based
violence when a new mining project gets under
way. Explaining the Bank Group’s work on gender and
energy allowed me to reflect on and appreciate that we are
not starting from scratch. My colleague Anita George, senior
director of the Bank’s new Energy & Extractive
Industries Global Practice, convened two town halls March 10
covering all regions to discuss how access to electricity
can have profound impacts on women’s lives.Her team’s ESMAP
Gender & Energy and Gender in Extractives
programs—along with regional programs in Africa and East
Asia—focus on expanding the evidence base, working with
operational teams and projects, and building capacity.And
they’re delivering results: In Senegal, they’re boosting the
incomes of rural women who are now charcoal producers and
entrepreneurs in the fuel supply chain. In Laos, targeted
financing is helping households headed by women connect to
the rural electric grid. We’ve sent astronauts to
the moon and achieved countless medical and technological
breakthroughs in the last century that were once thought
wholly impossible. Now it’s your turn: Imagine the
world as you’d like to see it in 2030. Tell us about it,
along with your ideas about how improving women and men’s
access to clean energy can help us get there. Show Less -

On September 19, 2014, a Kenyan middle-aged
woman was waiting for a bus at a stop in Nairobi.
When the bus stopped, a group of men surrounded her, and
started... Show More + to strip and assault her for wearing a miniskirt in
public. She screamed and cried out for help, but only a
couple of brave people reached out and gave her clothes to
cover herself. This kind of sexual
violence against women is not unprecedented in Kenya, but
this time was different. The brutality of the violence was
caught on camera and went viral online. On
November 2014 alone, at least four such attacks were
recorded across Kenya. The numbers for violence against
women are disturbing: according to the Gallup World Poll
conducted in 2010 in Kenya, 48.2 percent of women feared
that a household member could be sexually
harassed. Yet, few things can be more
powerful than watching the violence for oneself.
Seeing the videos prompted indignation and courageous
actions. This is where the Internet and social
media have proven an important tool for sharing information,
organizing events, and mobilizing others, all of which can
be done at an almost zero economic cost. These videos went
viral under the hashtag #mydressmychoice and sparked the “My
Dress, My Choice” movement in Kenya. The Facebook page of
“My Dress My Choice Challenge” has about 12,000 likes; the
twitter account has more than 2,300 followers. The
online campaign and a demonstration on November 17, 2014,
which gathered nearly a thousand people in the center of
Nairobi, prompted Kenyan leaders to respond.
William Thwere Okelo, chief of state of the
Inspector-General’s Office, denounced the mob in the videos
as “criminal[s]” and promised the public that “the police
will take action.” Similarly, Kenyan deputy president
William Ruto denounced the attack as “barbaric” and ordered
a criminal investigation. As a result, the accused
were arrested on November 27 and, if convicted, they will
face minimum sentence of ten years to maximum of life time
imprisonment. This is an important milestone, as
the existing law (The Sexual Offense Act of 2006) is rarely
applied in Kenya. Yet, the real challenge lies in
changing social attitudes and behaviors towards women. The
local news reported various interviews with local men who
think that the mobs “did the right thing,” arguing that
there is “moral decay in society” and that the victim
learned a lesson. Others were critical of the “My
Dress, My Choice” movement out of a belief that a woman
wearing a miniskirt lacks “decency.” Despite the
remaining challenges, the fact that “My Dress, My Choice”
gained as much momentum as to generate large demonstrations,
affect legislation and raise general awareness on issues of
gender discrimination and violence signals a strong push in
society for gender equality. According to local
news outlets, many men marched in solidarity, some in skirts
to show their support for the cause. A male artist
and activist Boniface Mwangi, who wore a short dress for the
march, summarizes the underlying sentiment of the movement:
“I think the reason this sparked such outrage is it was so
graphic and everyone who watched it felt violated.
It could have been my wife, my daughter, my
mother.”Similarly, the Facebook group called “Kilimani
Mums”or “Kilimani moms” (Kilimani is a residential area west
of Nairobi), which played a key role in “My Dress, My
Choice”, has grown and expanded the issues it
covers. As of February 2015, this group now has
more than 42,000 followers and has grown into a network for
sharing information about a wide range of subjects, from
asking about the best gynecologist in town to sharing their
ideas about social issues. As was the case in Kenya
with “My Dress, My Choice”, the internet and social media
are increasingly playing a key role around the world in
spurring and expanding collective action, especially around
“explosive” issues. More recently, for example, similar
protests took place in Turkey where men also demonstrated in
skirts to protest violence against women (triggered by a
brutal murder). Phenomena like “My Dress, My
Choice” also show, however, that social media can be part of
more profound and long-term changes including issues that
are as persistent and deeply-rooted as social norms
regarding gender. The 2016 World Development
Report on “Internet for Development” will examine in more
detail how to harness the potential of the internet to
generate collective action, sustain those efforts and
promote bottom-up accountability. Show Less -

Since the beginning of time, women have been
at a disadvantage when looking for financial loans. One
reason is that women have less control over land and assets
tha... Show More +t can be used as traditional collateral. This puts a real
damper on her ability to launch an enterprise or, even when
she manages to launch one successfully, to take it to the
next level.In Africa, women’s entrepreneurial knack is
self-evident to anyone who sets foot on the continent—just
look at any roadside! So, this problem is likely quite
costly and holding back development. Can we solve it
somehow?As it happens, the Entrepreneurial Finance Lab, an
entity that spun off from Harvard’s Center for International
Development in 2010, has developed a tool using something
called “psychometric testing”, which measures personal
characteristics such as knowledge, skills, education,
abilities, attitudes and personality traits as a means to
predict how likely it is a person will pay back a loan. And
it is proving quite effective. Could this be a way to
finally help find a solution for women who don’t have any
credit history or hold formal title to assets that are
traditionally accepted as collateral?The World Bank Group’s
Global Practice for Finance and Markets (GFMDR) started
thinking seriously about this, and worked to see it if it
could be integrated in a Bank-funded project in Ethiopia
(the Women Entrepreneurship Development Project, US$50m).
Francesco Strobbe leads the project team, and started to
discuss the issue with us in the World Bank’s Africa Region
Gender Innovation Lab (GIL). “I thought this was a great
opportunity to test some innovative measures to see if we
could reach a real breakthrough with much potential for
women entrepreneurs—in Ethiopia and elsewhere.”As the
project was being designed, GIL’s Niklas Buehren was
embedded with the team to conceptualize an experiment to
test the tool’s effect for potential small-scale borrowers
who don’t have access to traditional and adequate
collateral. As part of the experiment, some women, who banks
would not otherwise consider lending to, will be chosen to
receive credit based on their psychometric characteristics.
Their business performance will then be compared to other
similar women who did not receive credit. We will also
measure the viability of psychometric testing as a tool for
financial institutions to assess credit-worthiness. Both the
project and the GIL-designed test, or impact evaluation, is
supported financially by Canadian CIDA.GFMDR’s Salman
Alibhai has been working on the ground in Ethiopia’s Amhara
region to make the experiment a reality in collaboration
with the Amhara Credit and Savings Institution. The project
was launched earlier this year with a goal to reach as many
women as possible within the target segment in the town of
Bahir Dar, with loan sizes mostly lower than 70,000 Birr,
which is about US$3,500.This experiment is part and parcel
of GIL’s work, which tries to provide more specific,
actionable and rigorously tested advice to development teams
who want to make their projects and programs more effective
in increasing women’s and girls’ economic opportunity.We
will keep you posted on the progress and results of this
innovative pilot experiment as it unfolds. Show Less -

On International Women’s Day, let’s remember
the challenges girls face in education.What would your life
be like with only five years of schooling? For many girls
a... Show More +round the world, this is the most education they can expect
and they are the lucky ones. Across Africa, 28 million girls
between the ages of about 6 and 15 are not in school and
many will never even set foot in a classroom.March 8 is
International Women’s Day, an occasion to celebrate the
tremendous progress achieved in securing access to a basic
education for girls in the poorest countries. But
for us, it is also a stark reminder of the millions of girls
who are being left behind.We live in a world where violent
extremists are bent on destroying the lives of school girls,
their families and communities. And beyond the horror, we
see the daily grind of poverty forcing girls to sacrifice
their right to education and hope for a better life.
We know there is a multiplier effect to
educating girls. More educated women tend to be healthier,
earn more income, have fewer children, and provide better
health care and education to their own children, all of
which can lift households out of poverty.Breaking down the
barriers is a joint effortOur respective organizations are
committed to getting all children in school and learning and
much progress has been made over the past 15 years,
especially on attainment. Examples include Uganda’s free
universal secondary education policy (the first in
sub-Saharan Africa) and Ghana’s capitation grants. However,
at a global level, while the share of children out of
primary school has fallen from 15% to 9% since 2000, little
progress has been achieved since 2007.No single organization
can break down the complex barriers facing girls, especially
in Africa. As part of our collective effort, we are
supporting the work of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics
(UIS) to produce the data needed to make a difference in the
lives of girls across the continent. Together, we are
driving a data revolution in education to ensure that
countries collect and use more relevant data.The UIS has
developed a new data tool, entitled Left Behind – Girls’
Education in Africa, which illustrates the progress to date
as well as the enormous challenges ahead as the
international community crafts the next set of global
education goals. To what extent are girls enrolling in
school compared to boys? Which countries and regions have
made the greatest progress in reducing the gender gap in
primary and lower secondary education? And what kinds of
classroom conditions are shaping the learning experiences of
African girls across the continent? These are just some of
the issues addressed in this interactive tool, which is
automatically updated with the latest available
data. Learning conditions need to improveFor those
children who enroll in school, poor classroom conditions can
interfere with learning. On average, three pupils share a
single mathematics textbook across the region. Only 22% of
schools have access to electricity, and slightly less than
half have access to drinking water. In half of African
countries with data, there are more than 50 pupils per
class.We know that schools without toilets, or with shared
toilets, pose a health and safety risk for girls as well as
present a significant cultural barrier which keeps girls
away from such schools.More qualified teachers
needed But perhaps most striking, the data shows
that the dire shortage of teachers may get even worse as
many African countries struggle to keep up with the rising
demand for education from a growing school-age population.
Today, the region needs to create 2.3 million new teaching
positions and fill 3.9 million vacant posts in order to
accommodate a maximum of 40 pupils in each classroom.But it
is not enough to just hire more teachers. Africa needs more
qualified teachers who get support and training to improve
their teaching. There is also a need for more female
teachers who can be positive role models for girls.Let’s
make sure girls get the future they deserveIt is not
difficult to predict what the future holds for girls who
never go to school. They will join the ranks of the 77
million young women between the ages of 15 and 24 who are
unable to read or write a single sentence, let alone
decipher a medical prescription or help their children with
homework. Young women make up two-thirds of the global
illiterate population. About 29 million live in sub-Saharan
Africa and they face a life in poverty. Hence, it
is crucial to ensure that girls get a basic
education.Greater resources and targeted programs will help
tackle the specific social and economic factors that deny
girls their right to education, but it will take more than
promises to get every girl in school and learning. Together,
UNESCO, the World Bank and the Global Partnership for
Education focus on improving gender equality and empowering
girls and women through quality education.What do you think
it will take to leave no girl behind? Explore the
data and join us on Twitter (#leftbehind) to share
your views. Follow the World Bank Group
Education team on Twitter @wbg_education Show Less -

This Sunday, International Women’s Day
celebrates the achievements of women, while calling for
greater gender equality. Ahead of several high-profile
campaigns and ... Show More +initiatives launching this week and next, I
thought I’d highlight some gender data and trends that you
might not know about.Note: as these data are from different
sources, some of the members of regional groupings may
differ between charts, please refer to the original sources
for details.1) 91% of the world’s girls completed primary
schoolGráfico 1Data from UNESCO Institute
for Statistics and World Development IndicatorsIn
2012, more girls completed primary school than ever before.
Since 2000, there’s been progress across the world but large
disparities remain between regions and countries. Only 66%
of girls in Sub Saharan Africa completed primary school in
2012, and in three countries this figure was under 35%.
Educating girls is one of the best investments we can make
and by 2015, developing countries as a whole are likely to
reach gender parity (about the same numbers of boys and
girls) in terms of primary and secondary enrollment.
2) Globally, the adolescent fertility rate fell
40% between 1970 and 2012Gráfico 2Data from UIS and United
Nations Population Division, World Population
ProspectsGlobally, the adolescent fertility rate declined
from 77 per 1,000 women ages 15–19 in 1970 to 45 in 2012.
This happened while female secondary school enrollment
increased from 35 percent to 72 percent. As you can see from
the bubble chart above: teenage women are less likely to
become mothers when they attend secondary school.
The relationship between the two tends to be
similar across regions, except for Latin America and the
Caribbean and East Asia and Pacific, where the correlation
is much weaker.If you’re wondering how exactly fertility
rates are measured and want to know about global trends in
the last 50 years, don’t miss this episode of “The Data
Minute”:The Data Minute3) At 64%, Sub-Saharan Africa has the
world’s highest female participation in the labor forceChart
3Modelled Data from the International Labor Organization Key
Indicators of the labour Market 8th edition database and the
WDIThe female labor force participation rate – the ratio of
the employed and unemployed to the working-age population –
ranges from 22% in Middle East and North Africa to 64% in
Sub-Saharan Africa. In almost all countries labor force
participation rates are lower for females than males, partly
because female labor participation rates are likely to be
underestimated due to difficulties in capturing those (often
women) in non-regular, unpaid or informal work. In addition,
a high labor force participation rate isn’t always a
positive sign, since it may imply little choice to remain
out of work. As Alice Newton notes, policies that ensure
that women can take part in the workforce on equal terms
with men are key to achieving gender equality and poverty
reduction. 4) Globally, 137 economies have laws
mandating maternity leaveChart 4Some differentiations in
labor law may increase job opportunities for women, while
others may limit them. Parental leave policies are generally
expected to generate a more equitable division of child
rearing responsibilities, giving women the same
opportunities for career advancement as men. In the case of
maternity leave, according to Women, Business and Law, the
global average mandatory minimum is about 100 paid days and
it’s Bulgaria that leads the way with a minimum of 410 days
leave at 90% of salary, fully paid for by the
government. 5) 30% of East Asia’s top management
positions are held by womenChart 5Women’s participation in
economic activities, particularly in business leadership
roles as the top managers in firms, highlights their
economic empowerment and advancement. Although the East Asia
and Pacific region leads the way, the average share of firms
with female top managers around the world is low, at about
20 percent. These statistics also don’t fully
capture women-led firms, which tend to be smaller
than male-led firms and concentrated in such areas
as retail businesses.Bonus chart: Fewer Women Run
S&P 1500 firms than men named JohnThe New York Times
using data from Execucomp recently created a “ Glass Ceiling
Index” which also finds that only 1 in 25 S&P 1500
CEOs is a woman. Meanwhile in East Asia, “47 percent of the
overall staff and 33 percent of people” are women in Chinese
firm Alibaba where according to CEO Jack Ma: “"Women
think about others more than themselves," which is key
for Alibaba and its ability to serve users.” 6)
More than 700 million women globally have been subject to
physical or sexual violenceChart 6 The World Bank’s
“Voice and Agency” report finds that 1 in 3, or more than
700 million women globally have been subject to physical or
sexual violence at the hands of their husbands, boyfriends,
or partners. Gender-based violence is a global epidemic,
affecting women across all regions of the world. In most of
the world, no place is less safe for a woman than her own
home. Across 33 low- and middle-income countries, almost
one-third of women say that they cannot refuse sex with
their partners. 7) Women are 14% less likely to own
a mobile phone than menChart 7According to the GSMA’s
“Connected Women 2015” study which surveyed 12 countries,
women see mobile phones as tools that make them feel safer,
save them time and money and open up employment and
education opportunities. The report finds that in low and
middle-income countries, over 3 billion people still do not
own mobile phones, of which approximately 1.7 billion are
female. Nearly 2/3 of these unconnected females live in the
South Asia and East Asia & Pacific regions and a
significant number, over 300 million, also live in
Sub-Saharan Africa.Gender Data GapsThe fundamental challenge
for understanding and tackling the gender gaps and issues
highlighted above is more and better data and evidence. But
for many developing countries, we don’t have the data to
help us understand just how big these gender gaps are, or
how to address them. Recently, Data2x identified
28 gender data gaps across five domains: health, education,
economic opportunities, political participation, and human
securityThe World Bank is working in partnership with Data2x
and on a number of other initiatives to improve the quality
and availability of gender data. You can find out more on
the Bank’s Gender homepage and via the Gender Data
Portal.Finally, thanks to several colleagues in the World
Bank Data Group for sharing their expertise and contributing
to the stories above, in particular Masako Hiraga, Haruna
Kashiwase, Emi Suzuki, Hiroko Madea and Buyant Khaltarkhuu. Show Less -

Also available in: Français│ EspañolI
recently returned from a trip to West Africa during which I
crossed the Benin-Nigeria border by car at the Seme border
post. W... Show More +hile waiting for our passports to go through lengthy
controls and stamping, I observed the intense activity of
the numerous cars, motorbikes and pedestrians passing
through.Sure enough, most of the women were on foot, and
they were the ones who were submitted to the most intense
scrutiny. While the men on motorbikes were able to ram their
way through by refusing to slow down, the women all had to
go through a narrow passage where they were subject to
questioning and document requirements. It was quite apparent
that women were being asked for bribes that men were able to
waive by driving right though! I had been reading about how
women are subject to more intense harassment at border
crossings – this experience brought this to life very
vividly.It made me thankful for all the work we at the World
Bank Group are doing to help women traders on the African
continent.A report published last year, “Women and Trade in
Africa: Realizing the Potential,” and a short video, “Mind
the Gap,” show that women play a key role in trade in Africa
– as farmers and producers, as cross-border traders of goods
and services, and as managers and owners of firms that
trade. They will be at the heart of Africa's success in
expanding trade. The report laid out some of the specific
hurdles women face at borders and beyond, and called on
governments to take heed and develop trade in ways that
benefit women. It found that governments and donors are
making concerted efforts to facilitate trade, increase
productivity in export-oriented sectors, and improve
competitiveness, but these need to be better targeted to
ensure that not only men benefit. It called on governments
to help women address risks like physical harassment at the
border and confiscation of goods, lack of access to stable
trade networks and buyer relationships, risks to business
arising from the need to provide family care, and
constraints on access to finance.In the Great Lakes region,
the World Bank’s ongoing work includes trade facilitation
measures specifically targeted at women traders. This policy
note, “Risky Business: Poor Women Cross-Border Traders in
the Great Lakes Region of Africa,” based on the results of a
study of cross-border trade in DRC, Burundi, Rwanda and
Uganda, finds that the livelihoods of women traders are
undermined by high levels of harassment and physical
violence at the border, as well as the prevalence of
unofficial payments and bribes. This video, “Les Petites
Barrieres,” produced at the border between the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, brings to life the
dilemmas faced by women who simply want to get their meager
goods to market. And the work is ongoing, including this
Great Lakes Trade Facilitation project, which is designed to
improve the environment for traders, especially women, in
the region.In West Africa, this report, “Unshackling Women
Traders: Cross-border Trade of Eru from Cameroon to
Nigeria,” centers on the role of women in the trade of a
specific commodity: a nutritious, leafy wild vine called
eru, which is commonly used in soups, stews, porridges, and
fish and meat dishes. Not only is eru an important source of
protein, but its trade is also an important source of income
for women, who do most of the harvesting and trading of the
vine. The report found, however, that women face barriers in
profiting from this sector: their access to the best
harvesting areas is restricted, and they face harassment,
lack of access to credit and training, and restrictions on
their mobility and capacity to exploit market opportunities.
The report recommended that governments enact policies to
guarantee equal access rights for men and women in the
sector and help women traders to organize and improve their
market power.One of our newest projects takes a novel
approach to helping traders who engage in informal trade in
Africa. These are poor, small-scale traders from remote
communities in the border areas, and the majority of them
are women. This cross-border trade is often their main, if
not only, source of income. This trade is informal, in the
sense that it is not measured, but the traders typically
cross at formal border posts; the risks and costs of
crossing elsewhere can be very high. In many cases the
formal crossing is the nearest point between markets on
either side of the border. This is the case for Goma in the
DRC and Gisenyi in Rwanda where more than 3,000 traders
–mainly women – cross the border every day.The approach of
this project, which is being piloted at select border posts
in East and Southern Africa, is captured in a simple
document that lays out traders’ and officials’ mutual rights
and obligations – the beginning steps of broader behavioral
change. Called the Charter for Cross- Border Traders in
Goods and Services, the document is designed to reduce
harassment of traders and increase transparency, integrity,
and efficiency of transactions at the border. It is also
designed to build trust between (women) traders and
officials. It states, for example, that whenever a physical
check is requested, female traders have the right to be
inspected by female officials in a private, but regulated
and accountable environment. Similarly, traders are
obligated to treat the officials with respect and to avoid
offering bribes or other favors in exchange for preferential
treatment. The project makes regular training available for
officials, and offers traders toll-free phone lines to
report abuses. Ultimately, the goal is to enhance processing
times, facilitate trade, and make the border a friendly
environment where traders can cross safely and officials can
work efficiently.But while these efforts respond to the
dynamic I witnessed on my visit to Benin and Nigeria, the
work is not yet finished. There are many women traders to
protect and many borders yet to improve. At the World Bank
Group, we are invested. We will continue to use our
country-based knowledge and our technical expertise to find
locally appropriate, effective solutions for women traders
in Africa. We know that economies depend on it. Show Less -

​​Junaid Ahmad, World Bank Group
Senior Director for Water, and Caren Grown, World Bank Group
Senior Director for Gender, wrote a blog for
Thomson Reuters... Show More + Foundation ahead of World Toilet
Day. Read the blog below, which originally
appeared in Thomson Reuters Foundation.Advancing equality
for women in developing countries is not only the right
thing to do, it makes good economic sense.Gender
equality enhances productivity, improves well-being, and
renders governing bodies more representative. And yet around
the world, discriminatory laws, preferences, and social
norms ensure that girls and women learn less, earn less, own
less, enjoy far fewer opportunities to achieve their
potential, and suffer disproportionately in times of
scarcity or shock.This harms not only individuals, but
families, communities, and economies. Impossible choices
often lie at the intersection of poverty and
inequality—choices no parent should ever have to
make: Will my daughter go out to work or fetch
water? Who’s sick enough, or valued enough, to tap a limited
supply of antibiotics? Which child will get clean water and
which will go to school? ​Will my daughter attend
class while she’s menstruating although there are no private
toilets, or should she stay home to avoid embarrassment?
Will she risk shame by relieving herself in the open by day
or possible rape if she waits for privacy after dark?One
major improvement governments can make to address gender
inequality—and some of these terrible choices—is to improve
sanitation and water service to households. Improving these
services would reduce excess deaths of girls and
women in infancy, early childhood, and reproductive
years, as was the case for rich countries in the early
19th century and for countries such as Bangladesh,
China, and Vietnam over the last two decades.​​Improved
sanitation also positively affects the entire community by
reducing cases of diarrhea, allowing children to better
retain nutrition, and improving children’s
cognitive skills, lifetime health, and future earnings.It’s
easier said than done, of course.Nearly 1 billion people
lack access to safe water and 2.5 billion globally
lack access to sanitation, such as a toilet or pit latrine.
One billion still practice open defecation, mostly in rural
areas. The challenge to eliminate this practice by 2030 is
significant, but we now know what it takes, and we
remain optimistic this goal can be achieved with strong
political will, a focus on behavior change, solutions that
offer better value than open defecation, stronger local,
public sector delivery systems, and the right incentive
structures.In urban areas, strengthening accountability,
management, and regulation of sanitation and water service
providers improves service delivery to households, taking
some of the worst options off the table. Some developing
countries are using a similar approach to achieve better
outcomes in health and education.Investments in Better
Sanitation Benefit Women Haiti is investing in
better sanitation and water services to build
resilience against the spread of disease such as cholera. In
rural China, a major drinking water treatment
program proved effective at boosting
education, increasing grades completed by
an average of 1.08 years. One study found that girls
benefited much more from improved water treatment than boys
in schooling attainment, and that the program can explain
gender gaps in educational attainment.The relationship
between gender equality and sanitation and water services is
reciprocal. Just as investing in sanitation and water
services benefits gender equity, improvements in gender
equity can meanwhile advance improved sanitation and water
services. In Bangladesh, a program offered cash
incentives for girls to attend schools and for
schools to increase their enrollment of girls. Enrollment
increased and importantly, schools invested in toilets,
knowing many girls would not enroll without private
sanitation facilities.In Papua New Guinea, the World Bank
Group’s Water and Sanitation Program supported a policy
that helped women have more say in
decisions around the number and type of toilets built and
where they should be located, improving overall quality of
services. In parts of India, previous studies have found
that giving power to women at the local level through
political quotas has led to greater provision of public
goods—such as sanitation and water— that mattered more to
women.Ending poverty by 2030 and boosting shared
prosperity—the World Bank Group’s twin corporate goals—is
possible only if we continue pressing to fully understand
such obstacles to gender equity and service delivery.World
Toilet Day on Nov. 19 presents an opportunity to expose
these impediments to dignity and development and scale up
efforts to tackle them once and for all. Along with our
client countries and partners in academia, UN agencies, the
private sector, and civil society groups, such as BRAC,
Water.org, WaterAid, and ONE DROP, are working to achieve
this—we can’t wait.Related links:Feature story: On
World Toilet Day, Focus is on Equality and
DignityBlog: Taking Sanitation to Scale in
VietnamBlog: Philippines: Owning a Toilet is a Sign
of Progress​ Show Less -

Women in Senegal traditionally have few
chances to acquire computer or programming skills. A young
woman from Dakar has set out to change that. Binta Coudy De
has c... Show More +reated a tech hub, Jjiguene Tech Hub, that trains young
women in computer and programming skills, preparing them for
a career in the high-tech sector.According the World Bank’s
latest report on the state of Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) research in Africa,
African researchers produce only 1 percent of the world’s
research.As shown in this video, unlocking the talent of
[[tweetable]]women and girls could improve the quality and
quantity of scientific research[[/tweetable]] and tech
innovation in Africa.Equal Skills, Equal Rights: Empowering
Senegalese Women through High Tech Although
Africa’s investment in girls and women in STEM has not
reached its potential, the world is already benefiting from
some of the continent’s high profile success stories:Dr.
Christine Mwelwa Kaseba-Sata is the First Lady of Zambia and
an internationally celebrated specialist in obstetrics and
gynecology. She spent over 25 years practicing medicine and
has invested her last 15 years as a lecturer at Zambia’s
only medical school. In October 2012, Kaseba-Sata was
appointed as the World Health Organization’s Goodwill
Ambassador against Gender-based Violence.Dr. Agnes Binagwaho
is Rwanda’s current Minister of Health. Along with economist
Jeffery Sachs, she co-chaired the United Nations’ Millennium
Development Goal Project Task Force on HIV/AIDS and Access
to Essential Medicines. Dr. Binagwaho also serves as a
senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School’s Department of
Global Health and Social Medicine. She has been practicing
medicine since 1986, and has now contributed over 100
scientific publications.Before Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma
was elected as the first woman to chair the African Union
Commission, she was making her mark as one of the
continent’s biggest scientific actors. Since 1971, Dr.
Dlamini Zuma has earned degrees in zoology, botany, tropical
medicine, child health, and more. A champion for women’s
empowerment, she has broken occupational ceilings in both
STEM and development.Of course, this is only a snapshot of
how far our girls can go, if they receive the proper
education, training and investment. Show Less -

Women are less productive farmers than men
in Sub-Saharan Africa. A new evidence-based policy report
from the World Bank and the ONE Campaign, Leveling the
Field: I... Show More +mproving Opportunities for Women Farmers in Africa,
shows just how large these gender gaps are. In Ethiopia, for
example, women produce 23% less per hectare than men. While
this finding might not be a “big” counter-intuitive idea (or
a particularly new one), it’s a costly reality that has big
implications for women and their children, households, and
national economies. The policy prescription for
Africa’s gender gap has seemed straightforward: help women
access the same amounts of productive resources (including
farm inputs) as men and they will achieve similar farm
yields. Numerous flagship reports and academic papers have
made this very argument. But it turns out that
closing the gender gap in agriculture isn’t so
straightforward. The new World Bank/ONE Campaign report
demonstrates that – contrary to the conventional wisdom –
equalizing women’s access to productive resources is not
enough to close this gap. The report, which draws on
background papers from the World Bank’s Living Standards
Measurement Study - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture
(LSMS-ISA) initiative and the Gender Innovation Lab, applies
a statistical method known as decomposition analysis and
finds that, while gender gaps in quantities of resources
still matter, gaps in returns to those resources are often
more important. Take the example of farm labor,
which emerges from the report as a chief driver of the gap.
Women in Niger use less adult male farm labor on their plots
– a factor behind the country’s 19% productivity gap. But
even when Niger’s female farmers deploy the same amount of
labor on their plots as males, men still enjoy an advantage.
They garner higher returns (in terms of output per hectare)
from the male labor that they use on their fields. This
difference could be driven by a host of context-specific
factors, including: child care duties that impinge on
women’s ability to mobilize and supervise farm labor, norms
that lead male laborers to exert more effort on male-managed
plots, women’s inability to command labor at key planting
and harvesting periods, and/or cash constraints that oblige
women to hire less effective farm labor. If these
gaps in returns also matter, then how do we level the field?
After identifying the priority drivers of the gap, the
report then sifts through rigorous evidence from impact
evaluations and other credible research to identify a
10-point policy action plan. While there remains a
substantial knowledge gap on what works for some areas, the
sector’s evidence base is growing. And lessons from
other sectors can offer some big ideas on how to tackle the
gender gap in agriculture. The provision of rural child care
services offers one promising example. Sebastian Martinez
and co-authors conducted a randomized evaluation of a
pre-school program in rural Mozambique and found that, in
addition to positive effects on schooling and child
development outcomes for beneficiary children, the program
led to a big positive externality: primary caregivers
increased their labor force participation by 26% relative to
a control group. Such an approach should also be piloted and
tested to see whether it helps free up women’s time for more
productive agricultural work – and helps make Africa’s big
gender gap a much smaller one. This is
the first entry in a new blog series highlighting
#AfricaBigIdeas. It will feature the results of the most
innovative Africa-related research being done across the
World Bank. What’s your BIG idea for Africa? Tell us using
the following hashtag #AfricaBigIdeas Show Less -

This past May, I traveled to Kenya, Uganda,
and Tanzania to produce “Mind the Gap: Gender Equality and
Trade in Africa” with a Nairobi-based film crew. As I headed
... Show More +off on my first official trip, I read and re-read the
chapters that this film was designed to complement — all
part of a fantastic new book, “Women and Trade in Africa:
Realizing the Potential.” I felt very comfortable
with the facts and figures — tourism in Kenya accounts for
12.5 percent of GDP; cotton is the third largest export in
Uganda; small business owners are a huge part of Tanzania’s
export economy, etc. — but did not fully understand the
situation we were trying to explore until I met Mary.Mary
was our first interview subject. Going in to our meeting, I
knew that she was a successful mountain guide and business
owner, one of a growing number of women who are trying to
make their way into the booming tourism sector in Kenya,
which generates around $1 billion yearly, according to the
book. What I could not know until I met her was the
incredibly high hurdles she had overcome to get where she
is, and the barriers that she continues to face simply
because she is a woman — from surviving a rape at a young
age and insisting on continuing her schooling and training,
to facing harassment from her colleagues on the mountain
(virtually all male), to being asked out for dinner or
coffee every time she attempts to apply for a loan or a
permit to expand the number of foreign clients she can serve
each year.It struck me as I listened to her story, and the
stories of the many other women I met along this journey —
from rural farmers to urban small business owners — that to
fully use and understand the numbers we produce, it is
important to know who is behind them, where they live, and
how they live, in order to provide better services and more
sound policy advice. This will not preclude me from
furiously studying the newest facts and figures as they come
out, but it definitely pushes me to want to know more and
dig a little deeper to understand what, and more
importantly, whom they represent. Show Less -

تحسين خدمة توفير المياه في لبنانWomen in
Africa participate in trade in many ways. They are informal
cross-border traders. They produce traded goods and
services. T... Show More +hey are rural farmers and they are professionals,
providing legal and accountancy services. Many are also
entrepreneurs with dominant ownership of exporting
companies. Women are—and will be—essential to the
continent’s success in the global marketplace. But
this promise is undermined by constraints. Certain
non-tariff barriers to trade impinge particularly heavily on
the trade-related activities of women and women-owned
enterprises. These include discriminatory regulations,
import bans, and corrupt customs procedures. These barriers
often push women traders and producers into the informal
economy. There, lack of access to finance, information, and
networks jeopardizes their capacity to grow and develop
their business. Such conditions prevent women from taking
full advantage of the opportunities created by trade. These
conditions challenge the aspirations of countries in Africa
to use trade as a driver of growth, employment, and poverty
reduction.Policymakers typically overlook women’s
contributions to trade and the challenges they face. This
neglect reflects, in part, the lack of data and information
on women and trade in Africa. It also reflects the
under-representation of small traders and rural producers in
trade and trade policy discussions. The latest volume from
the World Bank's Africa Trade Practice—Women and Trade
in Africa: Realizing the Potential—brings together a series
of chapters that look at the ways that women participate in
trade in Africa, the constraints they face, and the impact
of those constraints. The aim of the book is to raise the
profile of this public policy issue and to encourage more
research and analysis that will expand the body of knowledge
on gender-related constraints to trade. An
accompanying short film produced by the World Bank, Mind the
Gap: Gender Equality and Trade in Africa, shares real-life
stories from African women traders about the
challenges they face in business—as textile producers,
tourism service providers, and businesswomen. Some
of the key steps that governments in Africa can take to
facilitate the participation of women in trade
include:Recognize the role that women play in trade and
ensure that this is communicated to officials at all
levels;Ensure that the rules and regulations governing trade
are clear, transparent, and widely available at the
border;Simplify documents and regulatory requirements where
possible;Design interventions to develop trade in ways that
ensure that women benefit;Help women address the risks they
face in their trade-related activities, acknowledging that
they are typically more risk-averse than men and respond to
risk in different ways. Show Less -

The World Bank Group got the go-ahead on a
new strategy aimed at repositioning itself to better tackle
its two goals: ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting
sh... Show More +ared prosperity. The strategy aims to more efficiently and
effectively leverage finances, technology, and talent to
provide customized development solutions for client
countries. In a communiqué at the close of the Annual
Meetings, the Development Committee said it “strongly
endorsed” the plan. The committee said the Bank Group has an
important role to play “in delivering global development
results, supporting countries with their specific
development challenges, and helping them eradicate poverty
and build resilience to future financial, economic, social,
and environmental challenges.” Read the communiqué
and article.A new paper updated the Development Committee on
the gender equality agenda at the World Bank Group. In the
past year, all of the Bank’s country assistance strategies
were “gender-informed,” and the total share of
gender-informed lending rose from 83% to 98% between FY12
and FY13. This translates into a dollar figure of almost $31
billion, notes the paper.Gender was the subject of two
events on the final day of Annual Meetings, both featuring
recent research. A joint World Bank-IMF session, Gender at
Work: Barriers and Promising Approaches to Women's
Economic Participation, indicated that progress on this
front has fallen short. IMF Deputy Director of Strategy,
Policy, and Review Kalpana Kochhar said her study, Women,
Work and the Economy, found that women’s participation in
the labor force has stagnated globally and that the regional
per capita income losses due to gender gaps are as high as
27%. A World Bank study, Gender at Work, has found that
gender gaps run very deep and social norms are a driving
force constraining women’s choices, said the Bank’s Director
of Gender and Development, Jeni Klugman. The panel also
included Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner,
Elizabeth Broderick, and was moderated by the Bank’s Vice
President for Sustainable Development, Rachel Kyte. Replay
the webcast.Empowering Women Through Evidence in Africa
highlighted projects and programs that have had a
significant positive influence on the lives of African
women, reaching far beyond their original scope,
particularly in the areas of education, agriculture,
entrepreneurship, and employment. A panel including World
Bank Vice President for Africa, Makhtar Diop, economists,
specialists and African ministers discussed the results of
recent rigorous research that quantify gender challenges in
Africa, solutions, and implications for policy. Replay the
webcast. Read the article.Of NoteMyanmar and WBG
Sign Electricity and Investment Guarantee AgreementsThe
government of Myanmar and the World Bank Group signed a $140
million credit agreement to support the installation of a
modern, high-efficiency 106 mw electricity power plant in
Mon State. This investment is part of Myanmar’s power
expansion plan and the cornerstone of the World Bank Group’s
support for Myanmar’s energy sector. The project, replacing
aging gas turbines with new units and producing 250 percent
more electricity with the same amount of gas, is the first
step to bringing more and cleaner electricity to the people
of Myanmar.IFIs on Track to Deliver on Investments for
Growth in Central and Southeastern EuropeThe European
Investment Bank, the World Bank and the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development announced they are well on
their way to meeting targets for investment to stimulate
economic growth in Central and Southeastern Europe. This is
making a difference for entrepreneurs, exporters, and small-
and medium-enterprises, and serves as a signal to financial
markets that international financial institutions are
leaning forward to help these countries face the challenges
set off by the crisis.International Community Rallying
around the Four-Track Approach to Support
LebanonInternational institutions, global partners and
donors agreed to support Lebanon as it grapples with the
impact of the Syrian conflict on its economy and social
sectors. According to a recently completed World
Bank-led assessment, Lebanon faces billions of dollars in
lost economic activity as a result of the crisis in Syria,
and the massive influx of refugees is overwhelming public
services and driving up unemployment and poverty rates. Show Less -

Women face enormous risks in
conflict-affected settings. Yet they have also proven to be
powerful actors, whose interventions sustain economic
security or may reduc... Show More +e or discourage violence.
Under the right conditions, women can organize to build
lasting peace that makes sustainable growth possible in
resource-rich countries. These are some of the issues to be
explored on Friday, October 11 at a feature panel from 11
a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the World Bank (follow on Twitter at
#wblive), Blessing or Curse - Making Earth's Riches
Work for the Poor and Fragile Countries. In times
of conflict, where extractive resources may be one key
driver, women face a paradoxical situation. On the
one hand, they may assume a more prominent economic role in
the household in the absence of men. Yet their
vulnerabilities are heightened as security conditions
weaken. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
recent unpublished World Bank research illustrates this
paradox. Women living in the artisanal mining
zones of South Kivu have deliberately moved to mining areas
to pursue economic opportunities. But they are
often vulnerable, due to a lack of social networks in these
mining areas, coupled with ineffective implementation of
protective laws for women’s safe work in the mines. In the
most extreme cases in South Kivu, this vulnerability leads
to coercion, intimidation and sexual violence. Female miners
are as such doubly ‘at risk’: they are rural women in a war
zone, and also working outside any legal framework in
precarious social, economic and environmental
conditions. Women as peace-brokers But
women’s agency also emerges even in these extreme war
situations, as resource extraction can prove to be at once a
driver to protracted conflict, and equally a potential
pathway to development.In Bougainville, Papua New Guinea
(PNG), for example, a poorly-managed mining project became
the central flashpoint for a decade-long civil war. Women
described their lives between the PNG Defense Force and the
Bougainville Revolutionary Army as “life between two guns.”
But these same women were instrumental in ending the
conflict. They organized prayer meetings,
reconciliation ceremonies, and peace marches to advocate for
peace. They used their status in the matrilineal society to
negotiate for peace both within their communities, as well
as with the warring factions. Women’s organizations provided
humanitarian and emergency assistance to communities on both
sides of the conflict. While women did not have as
visible a role in the formal peace negotiations, their
influence in ending the conflict is well
recognized. This example of women acting as change
agents, in this case as peace-brokers, shows the importance
of women’s involvement throughout natural resource
development—from decisions about development of projects, to
active participation in the mining economy itself to
conflict resolution. And even in non-conflict settings,
women’s involvement in decisions about community
development, benefits sharing, the relationships with
extractives companies are critical to avoiding conflict, and
promoting sustainable development and shared
growth. World Bank seeks to boost women’s agencyThe
World Bank Group’s programs for sustainable development in
mining need to address the full range of women’s roles and
capabilities in and around the sector. Training in literacy,
savings, and small-business development can give women the
skills to seize economic opportunities beyond mining.
Supporting women and communities with health and child care
options can be part of a holistic approach to reducing the
vulnerabilities of women in extractives communities in
fragile areas. In DRC, the Bank Group has supported
the establishment of a national “Women in Mining”
association, RENAFEM. It unites women active all along the
mining value chain—from small-scale miners to academics, to
business women to government officials. Through this
national network, provincial focal points work with local
women’s groups to disseminate laws on the participation of
women in mining, to provide technical grants to build
ancillary women-led businesses around mines, and support
maternal and child care so that women can work freely in the
mining sector. In Papua New Guinea, programs for
women in mining and petroleum communities include
gender-based violence awareness activities for men and
women, literacy and business-development training, and even
activities, in partnerships with corporate partners, to help
women establish entrepreneurship opportunities around
solar-lighting. A World Bank study underway aims to
identify and understand potential conflict-prevention entry
points along the Extractive Industries value-chain, from
discovery of resources, to their extraction and transport.
And a new World Bank Institute (WBI) global online community
of practice will include a dedicated focus on women in
mining in fragile and conflict-affected areas.
(http://collaboration.worldbank.org/groups/gender-issues-in-fragile-situations.) These
activities seek to understand and address how fragility
shapes women’s experience and opportunities. They also aim
to ensure that women are empowered to participate in growing
extractives sectors, both as empowered decision-makers and
peace builders.RelatedThinking of Gender Every Calendar
DaySee Arabic version Show Less -

I was glad to read the announcement made by
World Bank President, Dr. Jim Kim, at the start of this
year’s UN General Assembly meetings, about the Bank’s
projected ... Show More +financing support through the end of 2015 to help
developing countries reach the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) for women and children’s health. As we move
toward the culmination of the MDGs in 2015 and beyond,
preventing maternal and child deaths should be seen by all
government delegations and their partners in the
international development community as a clear yardstick to
measure their commitment for creating more just and
inclusive societies.But as evidence has shown across the
globe, to effectively address the insidiousness of this
challenge, a broad multi-sectoral paradigm for action is
needed. In some countries, particularly in
resource-poor settings and among certain population groups,
there are social and cultural norms that need to be better
understood to deal with myths and misconceptions surrounding
pregnancy, childbirth and proper care of the
newborn. There are also geographical barriers, as
in rural communities high in the Andean mountains of my
native Ecuador, or in the Caucasus mountain range in Georgia
and Azerbaijan, where the poor state of roads in a
challenging terrain, or the unavailability of transport to a
health facility, contribute to preventable maternal deaths.
Since in most cases pregnancy complications cannot
be predicted, a well-run health system organized around a
care continuum—from prevention and diagnosis to care and
rehabilitation, and without the hindrance of financial
barriers to those in need, is an essential mechanism that
needs to be in place to deal in a timely fashion with direct
obstetric complications. Such complications cause
more than 60% of maternal deaths and include hemorrhage,
hypertensive disease, sepsis/infection, and obstructed
labor. What happens inside a health facility is of
utmost importance in saving lives, beginning with the
availability of trained and motivated staff to render needed
services around the clock and essential drugs and blood
products; adherence to basic quality standards, such as
mandatory hand washing by doctors or nurses before patient
examination; administration of safe blood transfusion in
case of hemorrhage; and proper management of obstetrical and
newborn complications such as eclampsia, asphyxia, and
sepsis, which are often fatal if not promptly treated.
The power of modern technologies can also be
harnessed to improve maternal and child health. As
I recently learned in Ghana, an initiative by Mobile
Technology for Community Health (MoTeCH) and the Grameen
Foundation, piloted in the Upper East Region and now being
replicated in the Central, Greater Accra and Volta Regions,
is allowing women with limited literacy skills to be
informed in the local language about the “do’s and don’ts”
in pregnancy and childbirth. Women also receive reminders on
clinical appointments, due dates, and required medication
and immunization through their mobile phone.This technology
enables women, their partners and families, to recognize the
signs of life-threating complications during pregnancy and
empowers them to seek immediate care. Other applications
allow community midwives and nurses to provide rapid
response and care and to follow up with health service
defaulters in the community.Building upon agreements made at
the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning, and
follow-on discussions expected in Addis Ababa in
November 2013, added impetus should be given to
ensure well-funded and accessible voluntary family planning
services as another essential but integrated tool to reduce
unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and the risk of
maternal death.It is clear, as noted by Dr. Kim and
colleagues in a recent article in The Lancet, that the end
of extreme poverty will require sustained investments to
improve health care delivery. It should be obvious
to all of us working in global development that a critical
step toward that goal should be the revamping and
acceleration of efforts to make maternal mortality a rare
event, rather than a daily occurrence across the world. To
paraphrase the great Nelson Mandela, the keener revelation
of a society’s soul is how it treats its women and children. Show Less -

Young woman working on a computer. Tunis,
Tunisia. Photo: Arne Hoel / World Bank“Girls
programming isn’t just a cool thing; it’s also doubling the
chances of d... Show More +eveloping innovative tools and making the world
a better place for everyone.” These words are from my friend
Julie, who has been working as a web developer for the last
four years. She has also been involved in a few volunteer
programs in Africa, mainly to train young women on IT
tools.If you are able to read this blog, it means you know
how to use a computer or another digital device, such as a
smartphone. And the great thing is that you may be a boy or
a girl, from a rich or a poor region of the world. You could
be anyone, really. Indeed, the digital revolution is not
only happening in the richest countries. The generation of
the “Digital Natives” is spreading all over the world, from
South Asia to Africa, from Russia to the Caribbean and so
on. And this might be the greatest opportunity for the world
to close the gender gap.How?Not everybody is as lucky as I
was to be a girl born in France, with free access to
computers and Internet in school. In many regions of the
world girls suffer from having no (or little) access to
education and jobs. Nevertheless, things are changing for
the better. Globally, the gender education gap has been
gradually shrinking since 1999 and today the number of girls
and women who are passionate about new technologies is
growing at an astonishing pace, especially in Africa.As
Thuli Sibeko, organizer of the annual Girls in ICT event in
South Africa, recently explained in an interview with IT
News Africa, the technology sector offers “an extraordinary
opportunity” for girls and young women to forge successful
careers. She also warned that governments need to actively
encourage young girls to consider technology as a career
option in order to address skills shortages and
unemploymentOn October 2012, the United Nations agency for
information & communication technologies (ITU)
launched the Tech Needs Girls initiative to “inspire more
girls to embrace technology and invent the future” as well
as a multilingual portal to help girls and young women
prepare for and pursue a technology career.The world is just
realizing that the words “girls” and
“technology” go along with inventing a better
world. What do you think? Tell us in the comments. Show Less -

Mobile & Internet
Usage When I heard the news last autumn that
15-year-old Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan had been shot
simply for standing up for her right ... Show More +as a girl to get an
education, I was horrified.It also reminded me how lucky I
was.When I was offered a rare scholarship to study abroad,
it wasn’t acceptable for me, as a young married Indonesian
woman, to live apart from my husband. My mother laid out two
options: Either he would join me, which meant giving up his
job, or I had to decline the offer.I know it was her way to
advocate for my husband to support me, which he did without
hesitation. We both went to the United States to complete
our master’s degrees. I combined it with a doctorate in
economics, and we had our first child, a daughter, while we
both were graduate students.My mother had six girls and four
boys (I am number seven). She also had a doctorate, working
as a professor at the Institute of Education in Central
Java. She had gone beyond what “normal” for a woman in
Indonesia, far ahead of her time. And she was ready to
support me, in her own way.For a girl – or any child – to
have the opportunity to realize her dreams, it takes three
things: the determination and courage of her own
convictions, the love and support of her family, and the
support of her society. I was fortunate to have all of these
things, including a family that wisely navigated society’s
conventions. Because in the face of prejudice, it also
requires pushing boundaries –sometimes with your family,
sometimes with society.Malala certainly has had
determination and family support. She also was willing to
take incredible risks. But an extreme minority decided to
stop her. Her tragedy has triggered an outpouring of support
both from her own society and from around the globe for the
importance of investing in women and girls.When Malala turns
16 on July 12, 57 million children worldwide will still be
out of school, 31 million of whom are girls. Many more
children – mostly girls – are forced to drop out before they
can attain higher levels of learning, limiting their
options. Often poor families keep girls at home when there
isn’t enough money to send all children to school, and the
return on investment from educating a daughter is too often
perceived as lower than from a son.This is a personal and
development travesty. We know that children born to a mother
who is educated are 50% more likely to survive past the age
of 5. And we know that a girl with even one additional year
of education can earn up to 20% more as an
adult. Girls’ education = opportunity = income =
healthier, better educated families = empowered citizens =
ending poverty. The good news is that we have made
progress. Nearly two-thirds of all countries have achieved
gender parity in primary education, one of the Millennium
Development Goals. In fact, girls now outnumber boys in
secondary education in over one-third of these countries.
The World Bank Group has been a leading supporter of this
effort. With support from IDA, the World Bank Group’s fund
for the poorest countries, almost 6 million girls in
Bangladesh are able to go school. In Yemen, conditional cash
transfers have encouraged parents to allow their girls to
attend school, helping nearly 40,000 students.Yet progress
remains uneven across the world. The 2012 World Development
Report found that girls' enrollment in
primary and secondary school has improved little in many
sub-Saharan African countries and some parts of South Asia.
And an estimated two-thirds of out-of-school girls belong to
ethnic minority groups in their countries. So there is much
work left for us to do.As Malala stands up again to speak on
behalf of educating girls, we must all stand with her for
the right for all children, everywhere to go to school and
learn. We must share Malala’s determination and push the
boundaries with them and for them to eliminate expectations,
conventions, or poverty that prevent any child from
fulfilling her potential. Show Less -

When I heard the news last autumn that
15-year-old Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan had been shot
simply for standing up for her right as a girl to get an
education, I ... Show More +was horrified.It also reminded me how lucky I
was.When I was offered a rare scholarship to study abroad,
it wasn’t acceptable for me, as a young married Indonesian
woman, to live apart from my husband. My mother laid out two
options: Either he would join me, which meant giving up his
job, or I had to decline the offer.I know it was her way to
advocate for my husband to support me, which he did without
hesitation. We both went to the United States to complete
our master’s degrees. I combined it with a doctorate in
economics, and we had our first child, a daughter, while we
both were graduate students.My mother had six girls and four
boys (I am number seven). She also had a doctorate, working
as a professor at the Institute of Education in Central
Java. She had gone beyond what “normal” for a woman in
Indonesia, far ahead of her time. And she was ready to
support me, in her own way.For a girl – or any child – to
have the opportunity to realize her dreams, it takes three
things: the determination and courage of her own
convictions, the love and support of her family, and the
support of her society. I was fortunate to have all of these
things, including a family that wisely navigated society’s
conventions. Because in the face of prejudice, it also
requires pushing boundaries –sometimes with your family,
sometimes with society.Malala certainly has had
determination and family support. She also was willing to
take incredible risks. But an extreme minority decided to
stop her. Her tragedy has triggered an outpouring of support
both from her own society and from around the globe for the
importance of investing in women and girls.When Malala turns
16 on July 12, 57 million children worldwide will still be
out of school, 31 million of whom are girls. Many more
children – mostly girls – are forced to drop out before they
can attain higher levels of learning, limiting their
options. Often poor families keep girls at home when there
isn’t enough money to send all children to school, and the
return on investment from educating a daughter is too often
perceived as lower than from a son.This is a personal and
development travesty. We know that children born to a mother
who is educated are 50% more likely to survive past the age
of 5. And we know that a girl with even one additional year
of education can earn up to 20% more as an adult.Girls’
education = opportunity = income = healthier, better
educated families = empowered citizens = ending poverty.The
good news is that we have made progress. Nearly two-thirds
of all countries have achieved gender parity in primary
education, one of the Millennium Development Goals. In fact,
girls now outnumber boys in secondary education in over
one-third of these countries. The World Bank Group has been
a leading supporter of this effort. With support from IDA,
the World Bank Group’s fund for the poorest countries,
almost 6 million girls in Bangladesh are able to go school.
In Yemen, conditional cash transfers have encouraged parents
to allow their girls to attend school, helping nearly 40,000
students.Yet progress remains uneven across the world. The
2012 World Development Report found that
girls' enrollment in primary and secondary school has
improved little in many sub-Saharan African countries and
some parts of South Asia. And an estimated two-thirds of
out-of-school girls belong to ethnic minority groups in
their countries. So there is much work left for us to do.As
Malala stands up again to speak on behalf of educating
girls, we must all stand with her for the right for all
children, everywhere to go to school and learn. We must
share Malala’s determination and push the boundaries with
them and for them to eliminate expectations, conventions, or
poverty that prevent any child from fulfilling her potential. Show Less -

In many parts of the world, border-crossings
are more than just an annoyance for women traders. Women can
be subject to physical and sexual abuse from border
offici... Show More +als, or charged illegal fees because they cannot read
a receipt. Yet women traders are vital to some of the
poorest economies in the world.In addition to – and perhaps
related to – the heightened risks women take in cross-border
trade, they are underrepresented in the institutions that
manage those borders. Men dominate the ranks of customs
officials around the globe. One recent count estimated just
45 women in leadership positions in customs administration
worldwide.The World Customs Organization (WCO) is trying to
change that statistic. On July 1, the WCO, with support from
the World Bank, will hold a conference in Brussels to
stimulate a conversation about women in customs - about
their empowerment through both trade and public
administration. Called the Women in Customs, Trade and
Leadership Conference, the day-long agenda will address the
hurdles faced by women in a wide range of roles, from
informal traders to customs officials.Attendees will hear
from inspiring women who are leaders in customs
administrations from Malawi to the United States. They will
hear from experts in public administration, development and
logistics. The topics include the challenges faced by
informal traders, the ways customs administrations can
support women as “economic actors,” and the ways in which
women can work effectively in male-dominated customs
organizations.The subject of women’s treatment at the border
and within border agencies is important because gender
inequities can constrain a country’s ability to grow and
increase trade. They can inhibit countries’ competitiveness
in the world economy.This video shows the chaotic conditions
at the border dividing the Democratic Republic of the Congo
from Rwanda. Those interviewed points out that most of the
people crossing are poor women who struggle to survive.
These entrepreneurs often cannot read and do not get
receipts; unscrupulous officials ask them for more money
when they have no proof of payment. This dynamic holds back
business growth and development.Gender equity in trade is
also a topic that should not be ignored by men. It is a
business issue in a sphere where men make many of the
decisions. In fact, in Australia, the government took a
successful approach that incorporated important male
viewpoints: it convened a group of male, corporate leaders
to speak about their experiences as “male champions” for
women and describe how they helped elevate women to senior
roles within their companies.In tandem with the conference,
the World Bank is supporting a number of customs officials
from developing countries as they participate in a
Leadership and Management Development project designed to
help them gain deeper personal insight into their management
styles. The goal is to help these officials more effectively
influence change in their customs administrations.While some
progress is being made in customs administrations – 45 women
in leadership positions is better than zero half a century
ago – the sector still has a long way to go in better making
use of its labor pool. According to WCO statistics, 87.5
percent of all heads of customs administrations are men.
There are a total of 22 women in that position – seven are
from developed countries (representing less than 20 percent
of all developed countries), and 15 are from developing
countries (representing less than 10 percent of all
developing countries).The WCO is not immune from this
phenomenon: In 60 years, it has never had a woman as
Secretary General. Maybe addressing that statistic should be
next on the WCO’s agenda.The Women in Customs, Trade and
Leadership Conference is open to the public and free for one
member of each WCO member administration. To register, click here. Show Less -

People, Spaces, Deliberation bloggers
present exceptional campaign art from all over the world.
These examples are meant to
inspire. Source:
... Show More + ONE Follow PublicSphereWB on Twitter Show Less -

Madame Ngetsi wanted to start a business in
the Democratic Republic of Congo. What was her
first step was in making her dreams a reality? Did she go to
a bank... Show More + for a loan, a notary to formalize her documentation,
or the company registry to register her company? In fact,
her first stop was to go to her husband to get legal
permission to start her business. By law, Madame Ngetsi has
to have written legal permission to register a business,
formalize a document, open a bank account, and register
land—a requirement that doesn’t apply to her husband.You
might wonder where this restriction exists. The reality is
that it’s not in commercial codes, but in the family code,
which is all too often ignored by those seeking to improve
the business environment. You may also think that this law
is not enforced in practice, but it is. The good news is
that these laws are starting to change, and there are steps
that women can take to protect their rights—although they
still face enormous practical constraints beyond the legal
ones. What are innovative ideas to catalyze Africa’s
potential for greater growth and poverty reduction? Project
leaders and experts from across the World Bank presented
their proposals during two days of workshops. The
presentation on ways to overcome legal constraints to
women’s empowerment won the Biggest Idea Award.Video
Platform Video Management Video Solutions Video Player
Mapping the RestrictionsSo exactly how pervasive are these
restrictions in Africa? This is an issue that we tackle in
our new book, Empowering Women: Legal Rights and Economic
Opportunities in Africa, we map the legal constraints, like
those faced by Madame Ngetsi, across all 47 countries in
sub-Saharan Africa. We also demonstrate how these
constraints matter for economic outcomes for
women. Without the same access to property or the
same legal capacity to enter contracts, women do not have
the ability—or incentive—to access finance or start and grow
their businesses. While Sub-Saharan Africa has the
highest rate of women who are self-employed, women’s ability
to make the leap into becoming an employer is limited. And
the share of women employers is lower precisely in those
countries where they face greater legal gaps in their
economic rights.The challenge is not simply one that will
subside with development. The incidence of gaps in
these legal rights is as prevalent in middle-income
countries as low-income countries. The agenda is
one that will take active engagement. In fact, we
are now tracking legal changes across 100 countries over the
past 50 years, together with the World Bank’s Women,
Business and the Law project. The hope is to better
understand why and how reform happened and how we can
support legal changes in countries. This work has already
fed into ongoing operational work in the Democratic Republic
of Congo, Yemen, and Tunisia.Practical Steps for Women to
TakeReforming discriminatory laws on the books is the task
for legislators—and in some cases the courts, as they strike
down laws as violating constitutional principles of equality
or the terms of ratified international conventions (such as
the Convention of the Elimination of All Form of
Discrimination Against Women). But there are also
clear practical steps you can take, such as those listed
below. Most restrictions are associated with marriage, so
making informed choices regarding your marriage are
key.1) Where there are good laws on the books,
formalize your marriage by registering it so you can take
advantage of these laws.2) Choose a good marital
regime, if available, that gives you equal rights over
household property.3) Register your business in
your name.4) Register land in your name or at the
very least jointly with your spouse.5) Write a will
and encourage your spouse to write a will to avoid
discriminatory laws that apply in the absence of a will.The
time to act is now if we want to make sure that women like
Madame Ngetsi, and all her children and grandchildren, are
allowed to contribute to the economic growth of their
country unconditionally. All the women we have met
working and living in the region are dynamic and
hard-working, and they deserve a legal system that
recognizes their energy and innovation. We need to
move to make this idea a reality. Show Less -